It Varies (Betas in Waiting #38)

Chapter One

J ennika carried her overnight bag to the door of the vampire mansion. The building was old and creepy and right up her sister’s alley. She loved things that looked terrifying as long as they were under her control.

Annika came out wearing an evening gown that looked strange at one in the afternoon. “Jenn, I am so happy that you came.”

“Yes, I can tell. Your Botox nearly moved.” Jennika walked up to her and hugged her.

“Silly, I don’t need Botox with Loriman around. His energy keeps me young.”

“Delightful. So, since I know this can’t possibly be a social request, what do you want?”

Annika snorted. “Think you are so smart, huh? Our caterer cancelled.”

“When is the party?”

“Eight.”

“Get me in there, and I will see what I am working with and see what I need.”

Annika grinned. “I knew you would rise to the challenge. Thank you so much.”

“Don’t thank me. I am about to ask a lot of questions.”

She began with a head count and dietary preferences. As she did, she wrote everything on her phone. She had a list in half an hour, had checked the pantry, and verified that liquor was on its own. She was a chef first and an event planner second, but she absolutely loved a challenge.

The list went to one of Loriman’s flunkies. He was a foodie, so he was going to be fast but thorough.

Jennika smiled as she arranged the kitchen to her preference, and when the first box of food came in, she got to work.

By the time the party started, the appetizers had gone out, and the food was prepped for distribution. Basically, just bigger appetizers. This was not a plated meal. The food was presented to Loriman and his honoured guests then circulated to the room of fifty people.

Lots of rare beef, spiced chicken, and, surprisingly, a few vegetarian options. Those were for the betas designated as feeders. Jenn didn’t particularly care. She was sitting on a chair in the kitchen and nibbling on some cheese crisps when Annika came in around nine thirty.

Annika was holding a glass with a cherry and an orange wedge on it. “Here you go, Jenn, for a job well done.”

Jenn sniffed at the glass and identified pineapple juice. “You remembered.”

“Yeah, I also remember that you don’t eat while you are working.”

Jenn sipped at the pineapple and tasted something else. It wasn’t bad, just unfamiliar.

“They may have put a bit of brandy and soda in the pineapple juice. They have been on cocktail duty all night.”

Jenn smiled. “So everything went well?”

“Yeah. You have dessert set up?”

“Yup. It is ready to go, and so am I. This was a fun adventure.” She smiled and was feeling very warm. She rubbed the back of her neck, and when she loosened her collar, she understood. “You bitch.”

“Well, we have a situation. Loriman’s boss is in rut, and we have him shackled in the basement, but tradition dictates that Loriman is supposed to offer his own lover.

Loriman doesn’t want to do that, so I suggested this alternative.

” Annika lunged forward, wrenched Jenn’s head back and dumped the last of the juice down her throat.

“You do react so very strongly to this particular chemical cocktail.”

Jenn was choking and wheezing, and her sister let her hair go. “Just let it happen. I’ll be back in a minute. Don’t go far.” She looked at the men who had been assisting Jenn. “Don’t let her go.”

Jenn closed her eyes and remembered the recipe that had been in her mind since the last time Annika did this. She stood and went to the herb cupboard, eating spices one by one.

She could feel the need filling her, and this wasn’t going to stop it, but it would help it burn out and keep her from passing out afterward.

She wasn’t the same seventeen-year-old that Annika had used to get a boyfriend the first time.

She got it through Jenn’s strong reactions to alphas.

The man had been stupid and assumed that the woman in his arms had been in heat, and she had, but she wasn’t Annika.

“Miss, what are you doing?”

“If you aren’t going to help me leave, shut the fuck up, and stay out of my way.” When the herbs were all in, she sipped at the glass on the counter, swirled it around, and swallowed. That is what her body would be working against. She just wanted to be able to get away this time.

She was dazed and getting limp. Annika walked in and saw her swaying. There was a gown that matched the one Annika was wearing over her arm. In the kitchen, with the two assistants helping, they stripped her and slid the gown over her head.

Jennika walked with them, her feet bare, her body on fire.

A heavily barred door was their destination in the deep basement of the manor. Annika stood aside and looked to the assistants. “Put her in, and call her lady.”

Jenn looked at her and slowly formed words. “I will destroy you for this, Annika.”

Annika blinked. “Not if you are dead. In you go.”

Jenn felt hands on her, pushing her into the chamber. It was surprisingly comfortable. There was a bedroom there, completely appointed, including a huge, naked alpha with skin as dark as night, pointed ears, and silky hair that moved in a spectral breeze. He looked at her. “Lady Annika.”

She walked up to him. “If you say so.”

The confusion in his expression stopped the moment that he reached for her with heavy manacles on his wrists. He touched her and pulled her against him, burying his nose into her neck and inhaling deeply. He whispered against her skin, “Not Annika?”

She shook her head with a tiny motion.

“In need?”

She nodded, and he took over. For a seduction, it moved with alarming speed, but she was helped along.

He had waited until she said go, so that was good.

Six hours later, she was exhausted and draped across him. He was stroking her back slowly and said, “You can see me?”

She nodded. “Pretty eyes.”

He chuckled. “How is it—”

“Twins. She likes blood alphas. I have other interests.”

He tilted her head up and kissed her. “They are coming for you.”

“Of course. It was nice meeting you. See you in the next life.” She smiled, kissed him back, and pulled the gown on again.

The door opened, and the assistants were there again, helping her out and gripping her arms as soon as they left the cell.

She was carried out, and someone hauled her bag and clothing to her left. They were pulling her toward the cliff, and she sent a signal. Learning how to call for help had been tricky, but then another pulse came. They were coming.

“Lady Annika can’t be here. She is waiting for our lord to visit her after her trying evening.

She said that you will rot at the base of this cliff, and she will come by to see you frequently.

” There was a lot of dark glee in that voice.

“She hopes you had a nice time with the visitor. It is going to be your last.”

The voices seemed a thousand miles away. They hauled her to the edge of the cliff, and she looked down.

For a second, she was terrified, and then she saw large green eyes looking up at her from below.

“Any last words?” They tossed her clothing, phone, and pack over.

“Just these. What do you think he will do when he joins them and she doesn’t smell like him?

I know you don’t have much of a sense of smell, but she also isn’t wearing his marks.

Have fun with that.” Jennika took a deep breath and fell backward for long seconds before she was wrapped in fur and carried through a portal. Sable had her. She would be okay.

Sable bathed her, treated the bite marks, and carried her to bed. “So, your sister?”

“Yup. Can you get something to clear my system of the sedative?”

Sable sniffed. “Do you want to chance the baby?”

“What?”

“Well, you are receptive, and you were with him for hours. I would guess your connection is going to be successful. I just get that inkling.”

Jenn lay back. “Of course. That is my luck.”

“If you want actual luck, I can call Ivy.”

“No. Definitely not. Did you get my stuff?”

“Yes. I used your phone location to get a better bead on you. Really glad I put that on your phone.” She smoothed the bedding over Jenn’s shoulders. “Rest, and I will get everything sorted. You have three days until you are back at work.”

“The ache should have finished by then.”

“Painful?”

She snorted. “No. Thorough. He was careful, precise, and while I felt his rut, I wasn’t destroyed by it.”

“Good. Get some rest.”

“Yes, Sable. Thanks for coming to get me.”

“No problem. Glad we made the plan.”

Jenn settled in her bed and relaxed for the first time since Annika had contacted her. She hoped the dark blood alpha was doing okay. He didn’t deserve to be mixed in her mess.

* * * *

X iroth dressed and went up to speak to his host. The woman at Loriman’s side looked like Xiroth’s lover, but the scent was wrong.

He walked through the court and stood in front of Loriman. “Thank you for the hospitality of the woman last night. I hope she is not too fatigued.”

Annika blinked.

Loriman took her hand and kissed it. “She recovers quickly, but I am surprised she is not marked. I remember you being creative in placement.”

“Ah, I was. That, however, is not the woman I was with last night. The woman I was with last night had been given an aphrodisiac and knew it. We did not exchange names, but I am wishing to correct that oversight... now.”

Loriman looked at his beta. “What is he talking about?”

Annika swallowed. “My sister was here helping with the party, and I thought he wouldn’t notice as we look the same, so I gave her something to help things along and sent her down to him.”

Loriman said, “Where is she now?”

“She left.”

There was a clatter at one of the sideboards. Xiroth raised his head and caught his lover’s scent on the man. “You were in prolonged contact with her. Why?”

The man was shaking. Xiroth raised his hand, and the man was pulled into his grip. He looked at him and used the scent trail to get into his memories. What he found disgusted him.

“Loriman, I need to tear your beta’s throat out.”

Annika shrieked. “What?”

He paced toward her. “Or should I take the woman out to the cliffs and throw her toward the rocks below? That was the fate she gave to her sibling.”

Loriman grabbed Annika, and she was on her knees with his hand around her throat and his eyes blazing. “Your own blood?”

Annika was babbling, and Xiroth turned to leave. “I do not bless your house. I do not defy your shadows. You are on your own, Loriman, for having such a treacherous mate at your side.”

He flared all of his wings out and left through the front door, taking all the luck of the house with him.

Once he was out, he lifted his head and flew to the edge of the cliff, where the scent, threaded with fear, was strongest. He flew down to the rocks, and to his surprise, there was nothing.

No blood, no body, no fear. There was a thick scent of polymorph magic mixed with the burn of a portal. He exhaled. She had been rescued.

He closed his eyes and replayed the feel of her hands moving on him.

Stroking his skin and clinging to him like he was the only safe thing in the world.

That was different. Normally, women took a look at the double fangs, and panic moved into them.

She took the bites, the drinking, and the sex with equal measure.

He didn’t remember having a lover like her, and he had been out since the first palace was locked down and he was urged to stay away and keep the locals alive.

This woman... she smelled warm. She smelled like sunny days and sweet mornings. She was out there somewhere, and he would find her. Her sibling would be of no use. By the time Loriman was done with her, she would be lucky if she could still eat solids.

He exhaled and wished he had marked her. It would be so much easier if she were marked.

* * * *

J ennika sat in the clinic, looking at her doctor. “Pregnant.” She nodded. “Right.”

“Do you have support?”

“I do. I have a good employer and excellent friends. I have what I need. Two friends are actually working on quilts for the baby already.”

The doctor chuckled. “Right. You are in good health, but you need to see an OB for this. I will examine a baby, but I won’t catch it. So I am giving you a referral to Dr. Theo Galanis at the Meksoren Hospital.”

“Okay.”

“They will be in touch with you in the next forty-eight hours.”

She smiled. “Thank you. I am already on prenatal vitamins.”

“Good. You are ready for this little one?”

“Ready or not, I want it.” She smiled and put a hand over her lower belly.

“Is the father in the picture?”

“He isn’t. It was a one-night stand, sort of.” She shrugged. “It’s hard to explain.”

“No worries. I just wondered. If you have friends to help, you are good.” He smiled. “Any questions?”

“I think that they are for the OB.”

The doctor nodded. “Okay. Well, you are in great health for someone starting a pregnancy, and the goal is going to be to keep you that way.”

She nodded and got some pamphlets about glucose testing to determine how she was metabolizing sugar later in pregnancy, the timings for different scans, and possible genetic screening.

She read it all while Sable drove them home.

Ivy had made apple pie, and a roast dinner was underway.

Jennika sat and looked at the friends who were going no coffee with her in solidarity and grinned.

“To family and the things we do to increase it.” She lifted her lemonade, and they saluted together.

They talked about notifying the hotel’s human resources, and Sable was going to let the kitchen know that their chef was bossing people around for two.

It was nice that Jennika was the event chef.

She worked fifty hours a week over three days.

Sable was on alert to keep an eye on Jennika.

Being the sous chef meant that she was in a unique position to do so.

Jennika looked at Ivy, and Ivy grinned back. As event coordinator for the hotel, she could also monitor things. Jenn wasn’t going to get away with anything, and it was so comforting it wasn’t funny.

She put her hand on her stomach. Two months down and seven to go. She could do this. They could do this.